THE REHABILITATION PROJECT of Sam Lord’s Castle Hotel is the very first of its kind that China offers a preferential loan to fund large scale tourism infrastructure in Barbados. It is also a significant project that translates the strategic goals reached by China’s President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Freundel Stuart during their 2013 meeting in Trinidad and Tobago into tangible actions.
This project can be traced back to May 2014 when I paid a visit to Prime Minister Stuart. During that meeting, we reached a consensus that China and Barbados should initiate the negotiation of the cooperation in Sam Lord’s Castle Hotel rehabilitation project.
Since then, with the support of Chinese and Barbadian governments, Chinese EXIM Bank and Barbados Tourism Investment Inc have carried out a more than 16-month negotiation. With their tireless efforts and fruitful work, the project has passed the loan evaluation and review of China EXIM Bank and got appoved by the two governments.
With the loan agreement signed, it is finally ready for the project to be put into operation. This makes China the only country that offers large scale preferential loans to finance infrastructure projects in Barbados, which not only shows that China remains confident in Barbados’ tourism industry and its national economy, but also writes a new chapter in China-Barbados partnership of mutual benefit and win-win cooperation, which will shine in the history of our bilateral relations.
I expect and believe that the construction and the future cooperation of Sam Lord’s Castle Hotel will play a positive role in increasing employment and foreign exchange income of Barbados and further enhancing the contribution that tourism makes to Barbados’ national economy.
Meanwhile, Sam Lord’s Castle will lay a solid foundation and set up as a pilot project as well for more capable Chinese enterprises which are about to participate in Barbados infrastructure projects and extend their businesses in the Caribbean region.
In recent years, the friendly relations and cooperation between China and Latin America and the Caribbean countries have been driven into a fast lane. China’s top leaders paid many visits to this region, and the first ministerial meeting of the China-Community of Latin America and Caribbean States (CELAC) Forum in Beijing in January this year has made a great success. Together, China and CELAC countries are engaged in building a partnership of comprehensive cooperation characterised by equality, mutual benefit and common development.
The US$1.5 billion preferential loans to our friendly countries in the Caribbean and the US$10 billion of such loans to CELAC countries, which finance infrastructure and development projects in the region, will be implemented by China EXIM Bank. The loan agreement for Sam Lord’s will not only greatly promote the bilateral practical collaborations between China and Barbados, but also bring new vitality into the partnership of comprehensive cooperation between China and Latin American and Caribbean countries.
China and Barbados are negotiating several other major projects to be funded by China’s preferential loans. I hope that the two sides could push forward negotiations of further cooperation and continuously gain new achievements so as to bring more and greater benefits to our two countries and peoples.
Chinese Ambassador to Barbados Wang Ke made these remarks at the signing ceremony of the loan agreement for Sam Lord’s Castle’s redevelopment.